Since 2007, I have had thousands of emails asking me how our Chaga here in New Brunswick compared to the Chaga in Siberia, where they and others were claiming that they in Siberia had the best and the purest Chaga on the planet. I simply could not answer that question for people, because really it did not matter to me at the time if Siberia's Chaga was better or not. Our own Chaga from right here in New Brunswick was working just fine for my illness. I was brought up with the motto: If it Works, Don't Fix It!

And besides, it was not me saying our Chaga was better than theirs, so I figured that since they were saying that theirs was purer than our Canadian Chaga, then the onus was on them to prove that point through getting some of our Chaga and comparing it with theirs. To my knowledge no one there in Russia, Siberia or Finland or the Netherlands has ever done that! Or maybe they have and don't want to publish their findings?

But I can tell you this folks, as a certified Arborculturist (Tree Surgeon) for over 20 years and having studied mycology for 10 of those years as well. What people are saying about the freezing temperatures having anything to do with the potency of Chaga is pure nonsense to me and simply defies the laws of Nature! Basic tree biology tells me this as well, because once a tree goes dormant in the fall, that's it- until the sap starts to run the following Spring.

So for those who wish to emulate the Chaga from Siberia, or from Canada all you need to do is go out into the forest after the trees have gone dormant, collect some Chaga, then take it home and put it into your freezer, it's as simple as that!! Please, for those of you who are reading this, use the good common sense that you were born with and just think about the basic laws of nature okay?

However in late Feb. of 2012, my Web Designer Carol Ann directed me to a forum that she thought I might be interested in reading. I went to this forum I was directed to, and the topic was of course about Chaga and a Bio Chemist by the name of Ramiz Saad from Maxxam Analytics in Toronto Canada, who had posted some very exciting scientific views about the Chaga mushroom. I simply re-posted on the forum that I was glad that finally someone from the real scientific community was weighing in on this subject and thanked him for his post from us folks here at Fiddlehead Heaven.

About two weeks went by after my post on that forum and I got a personal phone call from Mr. Saad himself. He proceeded to tell me about all the work & the discoveries he was making with Chaga and was very interested in working with us to bring this news to the world. He asked if I would supply him with samples of Chaga from New Brunswick to compare against other Chaga samples that he was collecting from other provinces as well as samples from all over the world, including Siberia. So I agreed to send him our Chaga under the condition that I receive a full comparison analysis with Siberian Chaga! I also sent Mr. Sadd other samples of my dried Fiddleheads and supplied him with some of my personal Chaga extracts for his personal use.

I admit folks that I was thrilled at the prospect of finally being able to give an honest scientific answer to those unanswerable questions that I had no answer for -about how our Canadian Chaga compared to the Chaga from Siberia! I really have no idea why folks are so stuck on this subject of comparing ours to theirs when all that really matters is, our Canadian Chaga is just as good and does it do everything it is reported to do for you? If the answer is yes, then who really cares where it comes from anyway?

So I sent Mr. Saad the samples to Maxxam Analytics in Toronto, that he requested from our company. I received word on March 29th. 2012 that he had received the samples and would I give him three weeks for his testing and to report back to us. I waited over two months for Mr. Sadd to get back to me, and finally emailed him asking for my analysis with no reply until June 26th, 2012 when he contacted me asking if I would quote him prices to buy bulk Chaga from us. On June 27th 2012 I quoted him prices and again I asked for the report (below) to which he responded with this email below to follow mine!

Dwight Thornton<dwight.thornton@gmail.com>

7/26/12

to Ramiz

Hello Ramiz,

I was just on your Facebook page and enjoyed the photo's from your Chaga hunting trip. Now you can appreciate the time and cost that goes into hunting for Chaga, especially with the price of gas these day's. Some day's you can burn a full tank of gas and find nothing, other day's you find only a few pounds like you did, and then there are day's when I find 50 to a 100 lbs. But those day's are far and few between now in New Brunswick.

Here are the prices for the fine mesh powder. (same grade as samples I sent) I normally don't do orders for powder over 10 kg. at all because all of our products are hand crafted as I explained on the phone.

These prices are given with the expectation and in consideration of future orders, and I would ask that you keep these prices for you confidential.

I would greatly appreciate your analytic findings of the samples I sent you in March of this year as was agreed at that time. I am most interested in the comparisons to the Chaga from Russia, so that I can after all these years give my costumers a honest answer to that question that keeps coming up over & over again, for which I have no answer for, which was really the deciding factor in me sending the samples you requested.

Needless to say, I was floored by this email, what Book??!!? And why would David Wolfe or anyone else be provided with access or information to the samples provided by my company for analysis? Which was the physical as well as Intellectual Property of Fiddlehead Heaven Forest Products.

I will admit that it took me almost two weeks to settle down and get over the anger of this betrayal and could not answer him back for a bit. How I answered that email on Sat. 8/11/2012 is as follows:

This is not acceptable at all, and was not the arrangement we made when I sent the samples of Chaga to you. You did not disclose to me that the results of the samples I sent to you would be published by anyone other than myself or I would not have sent them to you.

I respectfully ask that you please forward me the results from the samples I supplied you with, before this book you speak of is published by David Wolfe. In my opinion, Mr. Wolfe and other slick marketers like him have turned my industry into a freak show and are doing great harm with their sideshow antics to suck money from people who are unaware of how hard the people in this industry work or even know where their natural botanical's really come from!

I respect the work you do do Ramiz, but I do not respect the path you have chosen with this.

Thank You,

Dwight Thornton

In the weeks that followed, we spoke on the phone a few times, but he would not budge and finally did send me this Mineral Analysis only below for which there has no signing Authority with his name on it nor Maxxam Analyitic's company letterhead or laboratory seal.

So in the end, this report (if you can call it that) is all I got from those many months of trying to get the information for ourselves and for you! At least we now know the true mineral compounds for our Canadian Chaga compared to Siberian Chaga. Just look at the Iron & Zink content though, these numbers are very high compared to all other provinces and Siberian Chaga.

I'm sorry to say that you would have to buy David Wolfe's book on Chaga (and co-written by Mr. Ramiz Sadd) to view these comparisons though to see if what Mr.Sadd sent to me was factual to what he published in the book or not. I will not be buying this book myself!

So here it is, and enjoy the benefits of our Canadian Chaga as best you can, as I do. And although Mr. Saad still wanted to purchase our wild harvested Chaga, we have continued to say No to supplying him.

Mr. Sadd's website was published here for the last 4 years, but I checked it this morning after someone reported to me that this link was broken, and it seems to be gone from the internet